8094 



On the Opportunities of 



to the depth of three lines ; there js also on this web a small oval spot three-quarters 

 of an inch from the tip ; the greater web white, a dark semilunar spot resting against 

 the shaft, four and a half lines from tip; half an inch below this spot a continuation 

 of black extends for thirty-nine lines down the shaft. Thompson records four Irish 

 captures, the first and third in Belfast Lough, the second and fourth in Dublin Bay. 

 These occurred before December, 1838: no others were recorded up to 1850. The 

 same author mentions two English captures up to 1845, — one in Milford Haven, 

 another in Cambridgeshire. — //. Biake-Knox ; Bartragh, Dal/cey, Co. Dublin. 



On the Opportunities of advancing Science enjoyed by the Mercantile 

 Marine. By C. Collingwood, Esq., M.B., F.L.S., &c. * 



At a late meeting of the British Association the importance of the 

 vast trade of Liverpool, in its bearing upon the arts and sciences, was 

 recognized by the appointment of a committee to draw up statistics 

 of the vegetable, animal and mineral products brought annually by 

 the immense mercantile marine of that great port. The productions 

 of Nature, collected from every part of the world, as profitable cargo, 

 for the purpose of being used in the arts and manufactures, were the 

 subject of that report ; and, indeed, to no one spot in the civilized 

 world are brought such a vast variety of substances — raw material and 

 worked fabrics — as to Liverpool. The mercantile marine of the port 

 of Liverpool, engaged in foreign and colonial trade — amounting to 

 4500 sail, measuring 2j millions of tons, and employing many 

 thousands of men — exhibits an amount of enterprise such as probably 

 no other age, and no other' place, has ever before shown. The whole 

 globe is scoured by these men and ships in search of whatever may 

 conduce to civilization, and to the wealth of the country which is the 

 centre of this vast and important combination. 



The following table shows the number of ships making Liverpool 

 from foreign ports in a given year : — 



"Official Return of Foreign and Colonial Trade for 1857. f 



Vessels. Vessels. 



From the United States 934 From East Indies, Hong Kong and 



(Averaging more than 1000 tons each.) Australia 331 



From British America 493 „ China (exclusive of Hong 



„ Central and S. America 505 Kong) 17 



* Read before Section D of the British Association, at Manchester, 1861. Com- 

 municated by the Author. 



f Baines' * Liverpool,' 1860. 



